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PREVIOUS CHAPTER: After he escaped Konoha, Naruto continued his training, and finally trained in chakra usage, something that was made much simpler thanks to his Linker Core. With the assistance of his Shadow Clones, he managed to skill up his techniques rapidly before continuing his journey.

CHAPTER 10: MEANWHILE, IN KONOHA PART I

UPLOADED: 13 DECEMBER 2015

-CHAPTER START-

-MEANWHILE, IN KONOHA-

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen was not having a nice day. In fact, he was not having a nice week at all. Taking out his pack of scented tobacco and his pipe, he stuffed the tobacco into the pipe and lit it with a small Katon jutsu before taking in a lungful of the smoke and exhaling it in a loud sigh as he buried his body in his soft chair, feeling the weight of his job on his weary body. Taking another deep smoke, he recalled the events that occurred within the last week.

After the death of the Kumo delegate, Kumo somehow managed to get wind of the death and immediately demanded reparations. And as stipulated in the treaty between them, repatriation could be exacted in the form of the body of the man's killer, who would be Hiashi in this case. The Hyuuga clan was calling out for blood by this point. However, Hiashi's rationality as a clan head managed to prevail, and he managed to calm his clan down.

But this still didn't resolve the issue of Kumo's demand. They still demanded Hiashi's dead body, since Konoha had no proof that the Kumo delegate did anything wrong, something that Konoha couldn't dispute due to the lack of evidence and witnesses. And so, Hiashi sacrificed himself to prevent a war from breaking out between Kumo and Konoha, and with the exception of one casualty, everybody lived happily ever after.

If only the world worked like that.

The Hyuuga council rejected his idea because he was the clan head, a member of the Hyuuga Main Branch family, and clan heads were unmarked by the Caged Bird seal, a seal that prevented a Hyuuga's eyes from being stolen from his corpse among other effects. By giving his dead body to Kumo, it gave them access to their bloodline, something that was taboo to Hyuugas, a clan that was extremely concerned about the spread of their bloodline.

Hiashi did not agree to this. Instead, he was determined to sacrifice himself, considering that it was his mistake to follow through with his emotions and killed the already weakened man, despite the fact that he could as easily just captured the culprit. He understood the horrors of war, and just like the Third, he was tired of it, and hoped that his children and his nephew would be free of it.

Fate, however, said 'fuck you' to his plans.

Before he could walk to his own death in pride and honour, he was knocked out by his own twin brother, Hyuuga Hizashi, a member of the Branch House, what could be considered a 'lower family' who had their foreheads permanently marked with the Caged Bird Seal, which also marks them as a slave due to the seal's function of sending a powerful jolt of pain when activated, a misuse of the seal's main function which was to kill a captured Hyuuga member to prevent their bloodline from falling into someone else's hands.

When he returned to consciousness, he found out that his twin brother sacrificed himself in his place, having exactly the same face as he was. As he died, the seal's markings disappeared, making him look exactly the same as Hiashi. His body was sent to Kumo even as Hiashi grieved over the death of his beloved brother, blaming himself for it. As a result, he became resentful, having no one to ground him as the despair from his brother's death seeped into his mind.

He was not the only one affected, however. Hizashi left a son, Hyuuga Neji. Neji, who was already bitter with the fact that he was born into the Branch Family just because his father was the second born, became even more antagonistic towards the Main Family, believing that fate ruled everything, and that it was his father's fate to die for the Main Family since he was born in the Branch family.

This event would later be known as the 'Hyuuga Incident'.

Hiruzen let out another breath of smoke, the smell hanging in his office like a cloud. Standing up, he looked to his most precious village through the window behind him, drinking in the sight of the buildings and its scurrying inhabitants like ants. "How I wish this peace would be maintained, not just an elaborate illusion maintained by its own people," he said out loud.

Turning around, he called out to nothingness. "ANBU!" he said, addressing the hidden ANBU guards within his office. "I am going out for a short walk." He didn't need their acknowledgement to know that they all nodded and started to protect him in secrecy as he walked outside and told his secretary that he was going out. Even someone like him needs his break, and after three continuous years of focusing on the village's reconstruction and strengthening, he deserves a short break from his tasks for a day.

As the Third walked through the village's commercial district, he was greeted by the various people who bowed at him in respect, which he replied with the same courtesy, being the humble person he was. And so he continued his walk, greeting the people he passed by with ease and a smile on his face.

As he continued his walk, his mind went to the events of the Kyuubi Attack about three years prior. His mind wandered to his village and its people, remembering the struggle they went through to recover their losses and to mend their wounds. And together with their struggles, he recalled the hero that was instrumental in helping Konoha to survive the attack, their unsung, unappreciated hero, little Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto. Without any commands, his foot made its way to the orphanage where he placed Naruto at. "Wonder how he is doing now?" he mused.

Watching the massive doors of the orphanage, Sarutobi knocked on it, before it opened with a loud creak, revealing the face of the orphanage matron. "Yes?" the matron said, her eyes looking at her visitor. In an instant, all the blood in her face was drained as she realized that the visitor was none other than the Hokage himself. "L-l-lord Hokage!" she flustered in surprise. "Come in, come in!" she hurriedly said as she pulled the door open, allowing the old Hokage to enter her orphanage. "What brings you here today, Hokage-sama?" she asked, already dreading the answer.

"Hello there, madam," he said before he entered the compound, a polite "Excuse me," from his lips as he walked into the orphanage proper, the matron following right behind him. With his Hokage robes flowing behind him, he walked towards the field where the kids were playing around merrily, not realizing the presence of their venerable Hokage.

A kid was happily running around and crashed into him. "Oof!" the boy said. But as his eyes rose to look at the person who stopped his impact, he saw that it was none other than the Hokage, his old face looking down on him with a smile on his face. He gasped in shock at the presence of his leader. "Hokage-sama!" he said before he dashed, shouting out loud, "Hey guys! Hokage-sama is here!"

Watching the boisterous kid ran, the Third praised the matron. "They're energetic, and well taught too. You did a good job here, madam."

"Thank you," she replied happily, though she had nervous sweat dripping from her face at this point. She shouldn't have locked the demon! She should've just let him stay here, and show it up only when the Hokage came! She never expected the demon to run away from its cage. The hinges were melted by something she had no idea what, allowing it to escape. She cleaned the bloodstains easily enough, but that was a small consolation to her current condition.

In hindsight, that was actually a very terrible decision.

Hiruzen watched as the gaggle of kids ran towards him and started to crowd around him, their happiness and excitement infectious as he smiled watching the kids, the future of Konoha cheerfully swarmed him. He crouched down to play with the kids a bit more, remembering the times when he played with his son Asuma as the kids happily took his hand, trying to have him join their games.

However, something was strange.

Naruto should be 3 years old by now, about the same age as these kids. Yet, he didn't see hide nor hair of the small bundle of energy that was Minato and Kushina's son. After a while, as he played around with the enthusiastic bunch of children and still hadn't seen Naruto, Hiruzen stood up and dusted his back before turning around and looked at the nervously sweating matron. "Madam, where is Naruto?" he asked slowly.

"Na-naruto?" she replied back, her odd nervousness already making him suspicious.

"The boy that I gave to you 3 years back. Blonde hair, blue eyes, but still a newborn at the time," he answered her unasked question, even adding Naruto's characteristics to his answer.

"A-a-a-I have no idea," she stuttered out in fear.

Narrowing his eyes, Hiruzen suspected that something was wrong. On second thought, he should've figured out that something was wrong straight from the outset. From her reaction as she saw him, as he played with the kids, he should've suspected foul play straight from the start. However, he might've closed one eye to it, believing in the goodwill of Konohan citizens. But just to confirm…

The aged yet still sharp Hokage turned around and crouched back to the kids. "Kids," he asked with a smile on his face, his confusion hidden to the kids. "Have you seen a boy in this orphanage? His name is Naruto. Three years old with blonde hair and blue eyes?"

The little kids looked at each other in confusion. They never had someone like that playing with them, and they never knew about a boy like that. Everyone within the orphanage was of the usual disposition, with black hair and black eyes, and none of them fits the description the Hokage just spoke. "No... We never heard of him," came the reply of a kid among the rabble around the Hokage. "No one here looked like that, right guys?" His question was quickly answered by a rapid barrage of "Yeah!" and "No!" from the kids.

His smile quickly turned to a small frown at their answer. How did a child disappear entirely? A child he personally entrusted to the matron, one who was at the post of orphanage matron for so long, people automatically associated her with kids? Despite his suspicions however, he wanted to believe that nothing untoward happened to the boy, their unsung hero.

But the sight of one of the kids caught his eye.

Within the rabble of kids, noisy with arguments about the presence of the boy the Hokage spoke of, one girl stood behind them all, her body trembling for reasons unknown. The girl's hidden face looked up slightly, only to meet the intense eyes of the Hokage. Shock and fear flashed within her face, causing her to immediately avert her face away from the Hokage.

"Kids, calm down," he spoke. The kids went silent as if a magic spell was cast upon them, their words cut off as they all looked towards the Hokage at the same time, confusion within their eyes. "Little girl, please come here," he said, offering a hand towards the fearful girl, causing all eyes to turn towards the girl.

The girl, still trembling in fear walked straight towards the Hokage, the rabble of kids parting as she walked straight towards the old Kage despite her shaky steps. Whispers and rumours quickly spread among the kids, every single one talking about her, causing her eyes to look towards the ground, not being able to take the strange glances headed her way.

Almost a lifetime later – to her at least – she reached the wizened Kage's hand, immediately placing her hand within his, an action that once again brought silence to the rabble of kids. "It's alright," Hiruzen slowly said, his usual gentle smile on his face as he tried to calm the little girl. "No one will hurt you. It's alright."

The girl nearly leapt at him, hugging him tight as tears suddenly gushed from her eyes like a broken dam, her loud cries echoing within the orphanage, much to everyone's confusion. On and on she cried, her tears and snot wetting the robe of the venerable Hokage, yet he only smiled, slowly patting her back, whispering small words to calm down the distraught girl. Being a father himself, it was a scene that brings back memories of the good times when he was caring for his children.

It was nearly five minutes before the girl's sobs and sad snorts slowly died down. Even so, she still had her face within the Hokage's robes, unashamedly using them to wipe her tears and nasal discharge. He paid no heed to them, for they were just bodily fluids; he's had a huge amount of it on him for various reasons, and they bothered him none. What bothered him though, was the reason for her outbreak of tears.

As her tears stopped, he held the girl at her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes, displaying the face of the caring old man, the face he was most widely known for. "Little girl, what's your name?" he asked, a gentle smile on her face as his finger reached her eyes, wiping the remnants of tears on them.

The girl sniffled, calming herself as best as she could. "Mion."

"Alright, Mion," the Hokage said. "Have you calmed down?" Watching her nod, he continued his questioning. "What happened, Mion-chan?" he spoke slowly, using an affectionate honorific in the hopes of calming the kid down. "What made you cry?"

Mion sniffed again as she rubbed her eyes. Slowly she began to spoke. "I... I saw..."

"Mion-chan, please calm down," the Hokage said again. "What did you see?"

"I... I saw the demon!"

The Hokage's eyes widened huge as saucers from her words. A mix of thoughts ran through his mind at her sudden outburst. What did she meant? Where? Who was the demon? What was the demon? "What is the demon? What did your mother do?"

"The demon looked like that boy you said!" she cried out. "He had blonde hair! But mom was just protecting us! She just doesn't want the demon to do bad things to us!"

"So what did she do?" the Hokage asked. A sinking feeling already grew within his stomach, a sure sign of an impending bad news. Yet he held his thoughts deep within himself, not wanting to reveal anything.

"She hurt the demon! There's..." Mion shivered as her face scrunched in fear. Her arms wrapped around herself as her pupils dilated, the memories of that night resurfacing within her mind. "There's so much blood..."

'Blood?' A tingle of fear ran through the aged Hokage's mind as he heard the girl's words. Worry finally began flowing within his voice as his grasp tightened ever so slightly on her tiny shoulders "Can you show me?"

"Hokage-sama, I can ex-"

"Shut up," he replied to the matron's interjection, the threatening tone immediately silencing the terrified matron behind him, his eyes not even looking towards her. "I want her – Mion – to show me this... demon."

The matron had nothing to say, her stretched arm slowly shrinking down in terror. As her leader stood, following the shocked and terrified Mion, she slowly trotted behind them, internally cursing her acceptance of the twice damned demon. She should just reject it three years ago! Give whatever reasons she could instead of accepting him!

Hiruzen followed the shaken girl slowly, his feelings boiling within. 'I hope this is all just a coincidence,' he spoke to himself, trying to calm down his rapidly beating heart. Yet, he was unable to remove this terrible feeling within his heart, which only grows as time passes. Behind them, the matron worryingly watched, hoping to every god she knew that she just dreamed of her almost-murder of the demon.

Slowly Mion guided the Hokage to the orphanage's backyard, her mind immediately recalling the events she saw a week ago. Every day, she stole glances at her adopted mother, trying to think why she did what she did. As her mind rolled in turmoil, she unknowingly reached the small shack that had the so-called demon that she saw her mother... hurt.

Hiruzen immediately ran towards the shack, seeing the girl stop. He pulled the wooden door open, his mind quickly making a comparison between the shack and an outhouse. He looked inside, expecting the worst. Yet there was nothing. The shack was clean, absolutely no traces of any violence or anything that would verify little Mion's words.

But he will not mistake that smell. A stench he knew and understood well. A stench that wasn't easy to remove by any means, and the sheer thickness of it in this small shack was suffocating, nearly choking even him.

The metallic stench of blood.

The ground of the shack was recently moved and was wet, he thought as he placed a hand on the earth. His eyes widened as the worst case scenario popped up in his mind: that little Naruto died, killed by the angry matron, and his remains were buried here, right at the same orphanage where he was supposed to be cared.

Anger almost literally erupted from him in waves, nearly drowning both Mion and the matron in choking waves of chakra, his killing intent bursting out of his body. In a blink of an eye he disappeared from the shack, reappearing right in front of the matron. His hand grabbed the collar of her kimono and pulled her up, eyes burning with fury meeting eyes filled with fear. "Where is he?" he growled out, barely holding back his desire to crush the matron to a pulp.

The matron's mind nearly broke down from the intense rage she could feel rolling off the angry Hokage, only holding on to a meagre shred of consciousness that prevented her from keeling over right then and there. Seeing this, Hiruzen knew that he will not have any coherent answer from her. He took a deep breath, calming his boiling heart slightly before he looked around; trying to find any trace of Naruto, if any still exists. 'He's an Uzumaki. They won't just keel down and die,' he mentally told himself, both to calm himself down and to give rise to a small hope within himself.

Immediately he found traces of a body being dragged right from the shack's door. He bent down to the ground, analyzing the trace. He could see that he struggled hard despite the serious injury that he received from the matron, the same injury that led to the massive amount of blood that must have been in the shack before the matron cleaned it.

The drag trails lead directly towards a cellar behind the orphanage. And as he examined the traces, he saw some deep footprints with a trace amount of blood's scent still hovering within the trails. A small, sad smile appeared on his face, knowing that Naruto must have struggled hard. Yet a mystery cropped up within his mind. How can Naruto struggle so hard despite his age? He filed it away mentally before taking a glance towards the matron, ensuring that she was still catatonic from his killing intent and continuing to trace Naruto's path.

The first thing he saw was the cellar's double wooden doors, one that he was sure no boy Naruto's age could lift. His anger rose again as he imagined Naruto's body behind the cellar, dead to the world. But one thing caught his eyes. The cellar uses a simple latch to lock it, one visible from where he was. The metal bolt, however, was melted by something. And from the way the hole looked, it was melted from the inside, not outside.

Pulling open the wooden door, he entered the cellar, chakra instinctively flowing to his eyes as he looked within the dark room. The stench of dried blood was stronger, telling him that Naruto must've ended up here. It took him a short time to look around the tiny cellar, and the first thing that he could confirm was the obvious fact that Naruto was not there.

Confused, he tried rearranging the events that might have occurred here. The matron stabbed Naruto with an unknown weapon, the reason for the scent of blood lingering heavily within the room. From the scent's thickness, the wound must've been lethal; his blood loss would reach critical level and he died barely minutes afterwards.

At first, he thought that the matron must've dragged his body here to hide the evidence, but he seemed to have some life within him as he struggled hard. He attributed it to his Uzumaki heritage, but what happened next was where things turn weird. The sheer stench of blood was thick, showing that he could not survive. Yet his body was not here, nor was there any sign of moved earth, showing that he cannot possibly be buried here.

He looked back at the door, observing the hole right where the bolt was at the door. The small crater told him everything; it was melted from within. But how? There weren't a single thing within the cellar that could melt the door, nor was he old enough to know how to do so. What actually happened here?

He exited the cellar and headed straight towards the matron, now no longer as catatonic as before, yet still too afraid to act while Mion stood beside her, still shaking on her foot from the oppressive aura the Hokage emitted before. In an instant he stood in front of the wheezing matron, his killing intent no longer as oppressive as it was before yet still potent enough to make her fear for her life. "Where is he?" he spoke, a flat yet lethal voice.

"W-what?" the matron stammered out, a hand clutching her chest from the Hokage's maddening killing intent.

"Where is he?"

"I-I don't know..." was the only thing she could cough out as she bent her body, unable to face the angry Hokage. His fury boiled, almost immediately reaching his tipping point at her words. But he forcefully calmed himself down as he arranged the facts in his mind. There were no youki detected by anyone within his forces, and there were no reports of a massive chakra burst that would accompany a dying jinchuuriki from his sensory team. There was no sign that he was buried, and despite the immense amount of blood everywhere – if the lingering stench were to be trusted – there was no sign of him anywhere.

Naruto was alive; of that he's sure.

"Where. Is. Naruto?" he questioned once more, his anger as sharp as a sword within his voice.

She finally snapped from the Hokage's question, no longer able to take in his logic. Her self-preservation instinct died out within her broken mind, leaving only anger and hatred boiling within her heart, one that can rival the same feeling within the old Kage's heart. "Why would you protect that demon?!" she yelled, no longer caring about herself within her rage-addled mind. "It was nothing but evil! It killed so many, yet you wanted to protect it! It nearly destroyed the village! You were there! And yet you still wanted to keep it safe?!"

"He is not the demon," he hissed, his fist tightly clenched in his fury. How dare she?! Did she knew that Naruto was not the Kyuubi?! "You will take your words back."

"Why should I?!" she screamed out, tears of madness flowing down her eyes as memories of her child and his family replayed in front of her eyes, taunting her. "It killed my family! It destroyed them! That thing is no human! It's a demon! A demon through and through! And you are affected by its demonic magicks, not being able to see its wickedness!"

"I will not tolerate your insolence anymore, woman!" he yelled out in anger. "Now tell me where Naruto was, or I will pull it from you!"

"I have no idea!" she hysterically screamed in response. "I stabbed it, watched it bleed, yet it remained strong enough to survive! It healed almost immediately, as if I did nothing! I wanted to lock it within the cellar, starve it until it dies, so I dragged its bloody body there, but it escaped! It melted the door and ran away!"

"ANBU!" he yelled. Within an instant, three black-clad, masked member of Konoha's black ops team kneeled in front of him, ready to receive any order from him. "Restrain and pass her to Ibiki. I want to know every single thing she knew. Just don't break her." He turned his head as he spoke, looking away from the matron in hatred. The ANBU worked quickly, locking her movements in an instant before they all disappeared, taking the matron with them to the dungeons. "The only person that can judge her is Naruto, and we will make sure we will find him," he spoke to himself.

He quickly turned in disgust, leaving the orphanage. But before he could leave, a small hand tugged on his robes, causing him to turn towards the source of the pull. His rage filled eyes met with the accusing eyes of a small girl, yet the very hostility he showed within them caused her to flinch and shy away in terror at the Hokage, her hands slowly letting go of his robes.

And instantly Hiruzen was disappointed at himself. It was rare for him to lose control of his emotions like that. He should know better than to explode like that. Besides, the kids were innocent. They were not in any way involved with the crime the matron committed. He drew in massive quantities of air with every breath he took, trying to calm himself down. Having calmed enough, he bent down, patting the girl's head with his most calming smile on his face. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "You just saw a bad part of me. That won't happen again, I promise. What is it, Mion?"

"Um..." she fidgeted once more, trying to word her question towards the Hokage. "Why do you take mom away?"

A small frown slipped through his smile, but he quickly recovered as he reminded himself that it was not her, or the other kids' fault that they didn't know. "She committed a crime, Mion," he said truthfully, trying to make the child understand the magnitude of her foster mother's crime. "She hurt and tore the life of a little boy, smaller and younger than you when she was supposed to take care of him."

"But he is a demon!" she protested, the kids all agreeing to her words. "Mom was just trying to protect us from the evil demon! She said it hurt a lot of people! She is a good mom!" the kids all clamoured at the Hokage, all of them shouting their agreements and support at Rika's words.

"Kids," he said, silencing the kids down. "I know she taught you that there is a demon within the hut before." The kids nodded in agreement at this. "But that was not a demon. That is a child, a boy that I gave her three years ago for her to raise and keep healthy, to have him play around with all of you as well. But she was wrong about the boy, and she thought that he is a demon. That's why she was wrong, because she hurt an innocent boy."

The kids all chatted together in confusion, the details eluded him. But to calm them a little, he made an announcement. "I'll replace your... mother with another of my choice. Rest assured, she will take over the duties of taking care of all of you, and she will ensure that all of you receive proper guidance and support. Now, I must go. I will check on all of you every once in a while." He stood up immediately, ignoring the kids' confused eyes at him as he left the compound.

His mind was already in action, planning the best course of action to find Naruto immediately. He knew that Jiraiya will throw fits as he heard this, but even he knew that they were both to blame. And in the end, he needed to find him as soon as possible. 'What have I done...?' ran through his mind, his voice of regret growing strong with every second that passed. "Naruto, on behalf of Konoha, I apologize," he said towards the sky as he walked to his office, self-disappointment heavy in his footsteps.

-CHAPTER ENDS-

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